U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,316 describes an electrical connector plug which is widely used in the telephone industry. The connector plug comprises an insulating housing having a conductor-receiving opening extending into its conductor receiving end and towards the leading end. The contact members are inserted into openings which extend into one of the housing sidewalls to the conductor-receiving opening. The contact members are simple flat stamped sheet metal contacts having barbs which penetrate the insulation of the conductors to establish electrical contact with the cores of the conductors. The conductors and the contact members are on relatively closely spaced centers and the contact members are arranged in a row in side-by-side parallel relationship.
U.S. application Ser. No. 420,762 filed Sept. 21, 1982. and application Ser. No. 423,486 filed Sept. 24, 1982 show connector plugs of the general type described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,316 and which are particularly intended for use in computers and computer-related equipment. The connector plugs of these pending applications also have flat stamped contact members which pierce the insulation of the conductors to establish electrical contact.
While the flat stamped contact members used in the connector plug of U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,316 are satisfactory for most circumstances of use, it would be desirable under some conditions to provide contact members having wire-receiving slots for establishing contact with the electrical conductors in the plug. A flat contact member having a wire-receiving slot therein has been shown to be capable of achieving an extremely stable and long lasting electrical contact with an insulated wire. In some computer applications particularly, it would be desirable to substitute insulation displacing slot type contact members for the simple insulation piercing contact members which are widely used.
The present invention is directed to the achievement of a plug having plate-like contacts therein which have wire-receiving slots and which plug can be installed on conductors on closely spaced centers.
One embodiment of the invention comprises an electrical connector of the type comprising an insulating housing having a conductor-receiving end and a conductor-receiving opening extending inwardly from the conductor-receiving end. The conductor-receiving opening is dimensioned to receive a plurality of conductors in side-by-side parallel relationship. A plurality of side-by-side contact members are provided. Each contact member has an internal contact portion for contacting one of the conductors. The contact members are partially inserted into contact-receiving openings which extend into a housing sidewall that extends, adjacent to the conductor-receiving opening and substantially parallel to side-by-side conductors positioned in the conductor-receiving opening. Th connector is particularly characterized in that each of the contact members has a sheet metal plate-like portion having an internal contact end, an external end, and side edges extending from the internal contact end to the external contact end. The internal contact portion comprises a conductor-receiving slot extending inwardly from the internal contact end. Each of the contact-receiving openings is a slot-like opening having a major axis which has a length substantially equal to the width of the plate-like portions, as measured between the side edges thereof, and a minor axis which has a length substantially equal to the thickness of the plate-like portions. The contact-receiving openings have their major axes parallel to each other and extend diagonally with respect to the axes of parallel conductors inserted into the conductor-receiving opening with the spacing between the conductor-receiving slots of adjacent contact members being less than the width of one of the contact members as measured between the side edges thereof and equal to the spacing between the axes of adjacent conductors inserted into the conductor-receiving opening.
In accordance with a further embodiment, each of the plate-like portions comprises a pair of plate members which are connected to each other by a fold extending along one of side edges and each contact member has an external contact portion on the external, end thereof for engagement with a complementary contact member in a complementary connector. The external contact portion comprises a contact arm which extends from the external contact end, the housing having recesses in the first sidewall extending from the contact-receiving openings towards the leading end of the housing, the recesses being dimensioned to receive the contact arms. In accordance with a further embodiment, the contact arm of each contact member is of a length sufficient to extend to the leading end of the housing, each contact arm having a laterally extending end portion which extends partially across the leading end after complete insertion of the contact member into the associated contact-receiving opening. The contact arm preferably has a rolled contact surface.